Shadows of the Past

Abstract

Following research on transition economies in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), and having been motivated by arguments pertaining to the business systems approach, the authors propose that the existence of a communist heritage decreases the likelihood that employees will be consulted during organizational change processes. Results based on 23,876 firms across 27 of the European Union (EU-27) countries support this proposition. Moreover, the likelihood of direct consultation decreases with the existence of formal employee representation and an increasing share of foreign ownership in firms located in CEE countries. The authors discuss these findings in the context of organizational democracy research and the recent literature on transition economies and contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of participative decisionmaking processes in organizations.

Direct and Indirect Employee Voice and Firm Innovation in Small and Medium Firms

“…The data come from the Third European Company Survey (ECS, 2013), which has been used in previous HRM and IR research (e.g. Allen et al ., 2016; Della Torre, Salimi and Giangreco, 2020; Oertel, Thommes and Walgenbach, 2016). The targeted respondents of the survey were the managers responsible for human resources of private and public firms in the industrial and service sectors.…”

“…(European Commission, 2016). The data come from the Third European Company Survey (ECS, 2013), which has been used in previous HRM and IR research (e.g Allen et al, 2016;Della Torre, Salimi and Giangreco, 2020;Oertel, Thommes and Walgenbach, 2016)…”

Pay incentives, human capital and firm innovation in smaller firms

“…variable pay, innovation, employment relations and management practices). To encourage participation in the survey, respondents were contacted at least 10 times before they were dropped, resulting in a participation rate of 38% (Eurofound, 2015; for data description, see also Allen et al, 2017; Oertel et al, 2016; Wang and Heyes, 2020). The data were codified, and observations with missing values were excluded.…”

Global business models mapping: the American and European models

“…There are multiple "Europes", all with legitimate claim to the throne, but none with monopoly, some known and others wanting to be known, some with respectable members and others with a set of "poor relatives", embarrassing, somehow boring and always annoying. Although it is noted that certain European countries have had remarkable developments, then, never can it be considered or pretended that one day we might have a "central Europeanness" because this idea is, at best, nostalgic, and at worst, a scam (Oertel et al, 2016).…”